Retaining Your Client’s Your Way

Before understanding the key to keeping your clients and customers is understanding what customer retention means. It’s simply a goal to keep your client’s loyal for as long as possible.

Client retention is a two-way street. It involves you as the business owner and face of your company, and your “perfect” customer. As the business owner you need to demonstrate to customers you are worthy of their business. This is done by building a solid relationship. One they can relate to. When you display this correctly the customer responds by remaining loyal and buying your products or services repeatedly.

So what is the key to keeping and building customer retention? Without getting into the particulars of each type of business, we’ll refer to these as something more general. Creating a consistency in your actions with the reality and perception you’d like your clients to experience and then backing it up with your product of service. To do this effectively you need to set up a solid customer relationship marketing structure in your business.

This will include more than just a basic marketing plan. You are going to focus on the customer and their wants and desires. This may include putting out a lead survey before you even start your business to let you customers tell you what they really want. What problem are you really solving for them, and how can you make it better? Because competition is fierce and doing what everyone else is doing won’t cut it. This goes beyond traditional marketing and getting your customers to really know you and trust you.

What this means is creating open lines of communication with customers. Done in a variety of ways, including your website, and FAQ’s, to your customer service and reception (if you’re a brick and mortar). Scheduling a consistent plan with active social media, email offers, re-targeting or other contact is a big part of this. Keeping in touch allows you to offer exclusives, invites, sales, new products, more email captures etc., there is no limit to the imagination.

Collecting feedback from your customers is key and provides you with information you can use to shift your marketing, do general market research and analyze results. What better feedback can you ask for that the direct word of those using your product or service?

Current feedback allows you to see how your brand is viewed in real time, not 6 months later, when addressing and issue or pivoting in marketing has lost you thousands of dollars. Plus, it provides you with the opportunity to launch creative campaigns in real time. This can increase your customer trust and help your business grow. By allowing your customers to tell you what they need and want you can cater to their problems. Do you think customers will come back to a brand that provides them with the best solution? Yes!

Any good business owner will understand that importance of creating long term, loyal customers. It’s easier (and cheaper) to keep a customer that source a new one. That has been proven time and time again.

To gain interaction with your customers, visit the places that they do. Use the same tools they do. React to comments and needs they determine. This means being online and in social media. There are plenty of scheduling tools and SM automator’s to help you stay consistent on this and not be consumed by keeping in touch. Depending on your marketing plan, budget and team size you can dedicate specialists to handle your media, online accounts, and other outlets to better work on growing your business.

In short, hang out where your customers do, and your brand will keep popping up and keep you top of mind. Your niche, your way.